the.com/pancreas
the quiet organ that both feeds you and could digest you alive
means A long gland tucked behind the stomach that releases digestive enzymes into the gut and hormones like insulin into the blood, regulating both digestion and blood sugar.
from From Greek 'pankreas,' a tidy compound of 'pan' (all) and 'kreas' (flesh) — literally 'all flesh,' a nod to its uniform, fleshy texture with no bone or gristle running through it. The ancient Greeks named it for how it looked on the dissection table, long before anyone understood the chemical work it quietly performs.
- dual job
- Makes hormones and digestive enzymes simultaneously
- self-defense
- Stores enzymes inactive to avoid digesting itself
- insulin HQ
- Its islet cells control your blood sugar
- hidden depth
- Tucked behind the stomach, rarely felt
- name origin
- Greek for all flesh, no bone
whipple procedure — surgical removal of pancreatic head, performed on thousands annually for pancreatic cancer
islets of langerhans — clusters of hormone-producing cells in pancreas discovered by paul langerhans in 1869
cystic fibrosis — genetic disorder affecting pancreatic ducts, diagnosed in ~30,000 children in the us